Thaindian News

Johannesburg, June 11 (DPA) If there is anyone who has the ability to get knocked down and then get straight up again, it is Diego Maradona.
Controversial, confrontational, contradictory, the genius who is Argentina’s biggest sporting idol has yet another chance Saturday to start over again after appearing to be completely finished.

He will either end up as the failure who could not steer the team with the best player in the world to glory or he will be a world champion as a coach just as he was as a player.

Just as on so many other occasions Maradona is beginning a journey and no-one knows how it will end up. But this time there is a big difference. This time the 49-year-old is responsible for an entire football-crazy country and if he slips up without good reason, then he will not only harm himself but an entire nation.

“Papa, enjoy!” Maradona today recalled his daughters Dalma and Giannina telling him. “You fought so much that you made yourself bad, some of them wanted to kill you, others wanted to help you.”

Justifiably criticised in the first year and a half of his reign Maradona seemed to find the formula against Uruguay in Montevideo and in the friendly against Germany with a strong defence and quick counter attacks.

It was a lot closer to the style of his coach in 1986 Carlos Bilardo than the free-flowing football of César Menotti. A long way from the typically Argentine love of the ball but somehow still true to his own style - typically contradictory, typical Maradona.

That was until Maradona sprung another surprise when he ditched the defensive wall of four central defenders that he had used for months and changed to three at the back to make room for a third striker - Carlos Tevez, the man of the people that Maradona could not possibly leave out.

Argentina’s most famous number 10 has certain advantages in South Africa. The draw on December 4 in Cape Town that Maradona could not attend because he was banned by Fifa was very favourable.

Nigeria, South Korea and Greece should guarantee qualification and the potential rivals in the quarter and semi finals could have been much worse. And Maradona has the ace that every other coach would like in their pack: Leo Messi.

Maradona has been trying to win the confidence of his striker ever since he took over as coach. Messi is not easy to deal with, neither is Maradona and the pressure on both of them does not help.

The football discussion about who is the better player is valid because both share the gift of genius but there the similarities end. In terms of personality the two could not be more different. One is extroverted, impulsive, talkative and aggressive and the other is introverted, calm, pacific and almost mute.

That is why it is not clear if Maradona has helped or hindered Messi with his comments Friday that he wanted him to become “the greatest player of all time”.

Maradona knows how difficult that particular battle is and he admitted that it was with Javier Mascherano that he most identified. It is no coincidence that Mascherano is also Maradona’s captain.

But if Argentina are to win their third world cup, 24 years after their last conquest, it will be because Messi has done exactly what Maradona asked of him in today’s press conference: To be the talisman of team moving one step closer to becoming the greatest player of all time.